Board to consider intake pipeline

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 | 9:32 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority board is scheduled Thursday to consider a $650 million third intake pipeline to bring water from Lake Mead, a move that agency staffers say is needed to avoid the possibility of a catastrophic loss of access to lake water if the five-year Western drought continues.

Authorization for the project is included in the Water Authority board's annual update of the agency's capital improvement plan. The new intake would be a critical part of the long-term plan, and the costs from the project would help pump up the capital costs from $2.01 billion approved last year to $2.75 billion this year.

The third intake, which would be different from the existing two intakes in that it would be close to the bottom of the 200-foot deep lake, would be ready for use in 2011.

"The third intake will give us operational flexibility," Water Authority spokesman Vince Alberta said Tuesday. "If the drought continues, we could lose access to our first intake. It will help us manage water quality issues if the lake levels continue to drop."

Officials fear that the recent, relatively wet winter could be a blip in what turns out to be a much longer drought. If so, the water levels in the lake could continue slipping. Already, the lake is below 1,145 feet above sea level, down from above 1,215 feet a few years ago.

The top intake is at 1,050 feet, and Water Authority engineers fear it would be most vulnerable to a loss of access to lake water. The second intake, which became operational just three years ago as part of a $2.2 billion capital improvements effort, is 50 feet lower.

The third intake would be about 150 feet deeper than both of the existing intakes. In addition to simply preserving access to the water, the deeper intake would also bring higher quality water from the cleaner water near the bottom.

In the top 50 feet contaminants concentrate in a warm-weather layer called a thermocline. Engineers fear that as the lake level drops, the thermocline threatens the existing intakes.

The Thursday agenda for the seven-member board, which includes representatives from Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Boulder City and three members from the Clark County Commission, also includes potential approval of $200,000 to reimburse the National Park Service for costs in doing required environmental studies for the project.

Lisa Luptowitz, a Water Authority environmental planner, emphasized that the water that would be taken by the third intake was "strictly replacement" from a loss from the upper intakes.

"It's drought insurance," Luptowitz said. "There is a serious concern that if the drought continues, we could be sucking air or water from the thermocline."

A quarter-cent sales tax funds the Water Authority's big capital projects.